Monday, January 29, 2018

Like most family historians/genealogist you come across that
one descendant or two that are just so elusive you want to give up ever
locating information on them and at various points in your research you put
them on the back burner and consider them as your proverbial “brick wall?” I’m
no different and there are at least two that have been the thorn in my side for
several years.

Seebell TILMON b. January 10, 1904

This ancestor comes
from my mother’s side of the family and it is her mother who has been very
elusive or more to the point, her mother’s people have been hiding in places
waiting for me to find them and they have been doing a really good job of
hiding!

Recently
I thought (okay, last week) I would do some more research on my grandmother for
this writing exercise and try to research where my grandmother was born, who
her parents were and where they came from. Now don’t get me wrong, I had clues
but they really didn’t get me to a point that convinced me I had the right
people and the information I had may not have been for lack of a better word, “accurate.”

Let me try to explain. My grandmother’s name was Cebell,
Seebell, or Sebell you get where I’m going with this one? As my friend Lisa LEE
would say speling dozn’t kount, but it wood bee nice if it was consiztnet (I
added that last little part.)

For a little background, I met my mother’s parents once,
when I was about five or six years old and I still have some memories of them
and that visit to Oklahoma back in the fifties but I never really knew them.
When Seebell died in 1969 I didn’t travel back to Oklahoma for the funeral
because I was trying to make the high school football at the time and didn’t
want to risk not making the team, so I stayed home and missed out on time to
spend with my grandfather. Turns out I had a hernia and couldn’t play that year
so maybe it was karma?

When I began researching the
family history one of the things that I had was the obituary from Cebell’s
funeral that listed the names of her parents, her brother and the usual cast of
characters (family) that obituaries contain. My mother never talked much about
her parents and when she died I was not going to have her around to provide
answers to some of the questions I would have to determine who HER grandparents
were.

The obituary had information I
would use to determine the maternal side of my family and as you family
historians/genealogist knows, an obituary is notorious for having “dubious” information.
Nevertheless this and some oral history was my starting point and this is all
that I had to figure out where my grandmother and her people came from.

L-R Jo Helen, James F., Margaret, Joe Freeman, J.B. BOYD, June

Let me back up just a taste! I
did have some “oral history” that said my grandmother was born in Plain
Dealing, Louisiana and the obituary seem to confirm that. The obit also gave
the name of her father and mother as Willie and Maggie TILMON, along with the
date of her birth. The date of her marriage to my grandfather Joe FREEMAN
(nope, not that one if you read my earlier story; but his grandson Joe
FREEMAN.)

I knew my grandmother had at
least one brother named Otis WRIGHT and he came to visit us ONCE in Los Angeles
and I never saw him again because he lived in Connecticut. Cebell had several
other children that I knew and met through the years from their visits or when
my mother died and most of her brothers and sisters came to the funeral; Aunt
June who lived in L.A we saw frequently. Uncle J.B. who lived up north in San
Francisco would visit many times and everybody loved when he would visit
because he had that aura about him.

J.B. BOYD

My mother talked about her other
brothers and sisters but we didn’t see them as often as Uncle J.B. and Aunt
June. Her other sisters were Marilyn and Margaret; her other two brothers were
James and Joe Louis. With all of these siblings you would think I would have
had this family’s history down but that was not the case because by the time I
got interested in genealogical research all but two of them were deceased. So
here I was trying to put the history of this family back together with
basically this obituary and some sketchy oral history.

I had made some attempts at
piecing this puzzle together and I came across some information that got my
hopes up. I wasn’t getting anywhere looking for Cebell, Seebell TILMON or
Willie and Maggie in Louisiana so I tried a different approach and started looking
for these people with Otis WRIGHT in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma. Nothing,
nada, zip zilch! So, one day I just sat back and tried to remember some of
things I used to hear grown folks say about their kin when moms and pops gave
those bid whist and domino parties at the house.

Folks would be fogging up the
room with cigarette smoke with “Steal Away” and Little Johnnie Taylor playing
on the counsel record player with the mini-bar on the side; while sipping some
of the old man’s “home brew.” If you don’t know, you better ask somebody what
I’m talking about!

Well I started to remember stuff
like my grandfather met Seebell in Clarkesville, Texas right across the Red
River from Hugo, Oklahoma. So I started looking in Clarksville for any record
that would put Maggie and Willie TILMON in the area. Nothing!

I remembered conversations about
Texarkana and for some reason there was this back and forth migration to the
area so one day I decided I would look at Arkansas and see what might pop up.
It took me awhile, going through page after page after page of census documents
searching for Maggie TILMON or Maggie WRIGHT (remember Cebell’s brother Otis,
he was a WRIGHT or her “half-brother” and I thought since I can’t find her let
me look at someone name Maggie with a son named Otis and a daughter named
Seebell. BOOOM!

1920 US Census Roane, Bradley, Lafayette County, Arkansas

The 1920 census for Lafayette
County, Roane Township, Bradley Town, Enumeration District 120 page 4B, lines
91-96 had some names that might be what I was looking for. Antony (Anthony)
WRIGHT with his wife Maggie, a daughter Sebel E. and John TILLMAN as well as an Otis and
Ernest WRIGHT. Now other than Maggie, Sebel and Otis none of these other people
appeared on that obituary and you are probably wondering why I thought this was
the people that have been hiding from me; bear with me it gets better. At the
time I found them, I wasn’t sure and even up to last week I was still having doubts
that these were the people I was looking for, but as I tell people, things have
a way of coming to me when I need them.

I tucked this information away
and didn’t say much to anyone about the discovery because I wasn’t sure I had
the right folks but sometimes you gotta stash your information and look for
other ways to confirm it with a fresh perspective after time passes.

In this case because I had
something, I was able to go back quite far on the WRIGHT family but other than
Uncles Otis and Ernest the WRIGHTS were not blood but as a genealogist I felt
compelled to get what I could on the family because if I’m correct they are
still an extended part of my family?

When I looked at the
1920 census I noticed Maggie was born in Arkansas, Sebel was born in Louisiana
according to the record; as was her brother John. Otis WRIGHT and his brother
were born in Arkansas. You also see that Anthony was born in Louisiana but he
was a WRIGHT. I’m still unable to located Sebel’s father Willie TILMON but I do
have her as a sixteen year old with the surname TILMON, perhaps validating the
obituary information from the funeral I missed. Now she and her brother John
TILMON who is two years younger (someone I had never heard about before)) are
living with their mother Maggie, and two WRIGHT brothers! These people will do
anything to make my search more difficult and confusing but I’m game!

For a few years I was content to
sit on this information thinking I finally discovered Maggie TILMON but it
didn’t answer a lot of questions and I’m still missing my grandmother’s father
Willie TILMON, can’t find a marriage license for Willie and Maggie and no
certificates of birth for any of the children; yet!

One of the things I did was look
for a wedding license for my grandmother and grandfather and hoped there would
be some information on her mother and father and the people could come out of
hiding. Fortunately I knew they spent time in Carter County, Ardmore, Oklahoma
and that was the most logical place to look for their license other than Red
River County, Texas where Clarksville was located.

I guess my family is like that Tina
Turner movie, “they cain’t do things nice and easy!” Nope they got to
complicate the easy just because they enjoy hiding from me. What the heck is
this Seebell EVANS stuff!!! What happened to TILMON hey I’ll take a WRIGHT but
noooo; if the spelling of her first name was not enough confusion, now this
EVANS surname is something out of the blue and I’m not sure where to go with
it. But I chose to research my folks and this is what they left me and I don’t
give up that easy.

Whatever is going on with Seebell I
have to try to regroup and figure out a different approach to locate her
parents and one of the things that was known was Uncle J.B. was not my grandfather’s
biological son.

The story goes he was born in
Plain Dealing, Louisiana and I could swear there was a story of how HIS
grandmother raised him for a time. That would not be unusual because there are
other stories in the family where the parents go off to the city or a new state
looking for work and leave some of the children with the grandparents until
they can send for them. Heck my parents did that to my older sister and
brother; left them in Oklahoma with our grandparents while they came out to California
trying to get a toe-hole so they could send for them later.

I don’t know what it was or why
it happened but the other day I was thinking about my Uncle J.B. and remembered
he was in the Navy which meant he may have had a draft registration card. I
thought that if there was a card maybe his mother (Seebell) and his father
would be written on it. So I did my little FamilySearch thing and not only did
I get a hit on his draft card but I was completely surprised to see what was on
the card. It was the name of Maggie VINEY!

WHAT THE WHAT! Maggie VINEY!? Okay now it’s really time to regroup and
determine where to go with this new found information. First of all, I know
this is my Uncle J.B. because he was born the same day as my grandmother January
10th. His step father Joe FREEMAN was from Hugo, Indian Territory
and he was an original Choctaw Freedman enrollee. Yep! That’s another story,
another time.

More importantly there are two
pieces of information on this card that should help guide me to some of those
ancestors who are so determine to hide from me but they must not know WHO I AM!
Or maybe they do?

This document requires me to
reconsider the Louisiana connection based on his birthplace and the residence
of his “mother” Maggie VINEY. The fact that I have a Maggie is one thing but
now her surname is VINEY so that means I have to go look for a Maggie VINEY in
Bossier Parish, Louisiana, “my life ain’t no crystal stair for sure!”

While I’m messing around in
Bossier, Louisiana I hope to locate the father of Uncle J.B. and I’m certain
Maggie is not his mother. I’m reasonably sure it’s his grandmother Maggie
WRIGHT, TILMON or whatever her name is. In my way of thinking, since I have
this new name, let me plug it in and see what comes up…..my people must have a
very good sense of humor or they want to be found and they want to make the
journey worth my while?

Okay, this falls in the category
of “be careful of what you ask for…” Now if I didn’t have enough surnames and
people to contend with Maggie has morphed from Maggie VINEY to Mattie RILEY. If
you recall the 1920 census had Maggie WRIGHT with Seebell and John TILMON along
with Otis and Ernest WRIGHT so again, I’m reasonably sure these are my people
hiding in plain sight in Hugo, Oklahoma.

This also means that the draft
registration card on Uncle J.B. with Maggie VINEY as his mother, IN Hugo,
Oklahoma has merit. So now I’m looking for Maggie TILMON, Maggie VINEY, Maggie
WRIGHT; oh yeah and Mattie RILEY, are they the same person? What do they have
in common and what clues did they leave for me to convince them to come out of
hiding?

Before I move on there are two
things about one of these school records that did not get by me as unusual. All
of the children on the card with Mattie RILEY was born on the 10th
day of the month, is that even possible? I know for a fact that Uncle J.B. and
Seebell shared January 10, as a birthday but this has to be a remarkable
coincidence if true.

The second thing is Seebell is an
EVANS not a TILMON now; and that is her surname on the wedding license with Joe
FREEMAN in 1926. If TILMON is her maiden name where did this EVANS come from?
The plot thickens…

Because of that draft
registration card of “my favorite uncle named J.B. BOYD” I can tie a lot of
this up, surnames and all…and at least THESE ancestors can come out of hiding...

Part II

I forget exactly in what order
all of this occurred because once the wall came down it crumbled with the
quickness.

I quickly dismissed the inference
that Mattie VINEY was J.B.’s mother and since the draft registration card and
the school records tended to confirm this was Maggie TILMON, VINEY I knew I had
to start searching for two things, a census record and a marriage license for
Maggie with hopes to come up with her maiden name.

The fact that J.B. was
registering for World War II because he was born in 1922 the 1940 census seemed
to be the first place to look for him and Maggie. On his draft card it
indicated he was living in Alden Bridge, Bossier, Louisiana and that is where
it indicated Maggie lived, seems like a no-brainer.

Can I get a little Hallelujah
chorus, one brick down! Maggie VINEY was living in the unincorporated area of Alden Bridge, Bossier Parrish, Police
Jury Ward #3 (somebody is going to have to explain this jury ward thing) with
her husband Napoleon VINEY and Uncle J.B. VOID (I’ve seen this spelling before
in some of my Indian Territory research, I’ll have to drill down on that later
to see if that should be his real surname or is it BOYD?)

Now for the particulars, J.B. as
I knew and suspected is listed as her grandson,( another brick if you will.)
Maggie’s place of birth is given as Arkansas? Her grandson’s place of birth is
listed as Oklahoma (contradicting the Plain
Dealing story?) Okay put two bricks back on the pile! However, now that I
have a name for her husband and an explanation for the VINEY surname; time to
look for a marriage license.

Of course I turned to www.Anestry.com and according to the Arkansas
County Marriages Index, 1837-1957 Maggie RILEY age 38 was residing in Bradley,
Lafayette, Arkansas and married Napoleon VINEY age 42 who was residing in Clarksville, Red River, Texas and they
were married on December 29, 1925 in Lafayette
County, Arkansas…I think I want to knock out twenty bricks on this Maryland
Farmer. Of course “we don’t do easy” Ancestry didn’t have a copy of the
marriage license but I have information that has answered quite a few questions
and I can make some interesting connections to Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana
and Texas that fit the family oral history. With this new information I’m
certain I can knock down a few more walls and add to my brick collection.

Clearly, Maggie married Napoleon
later in life and there is no indication he is the father of any of her
children because if I’m not mistaken all of the children attributed to her were
born prior to 1925. Now that I have what appears to her maiden name (it’s not
VINEY, TILMON or WRIGHT from everything discovered so far, so I’m going with
RILEY until further notice. Time to do a look-up on Maggie RILEY in Oklahoma,
Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana; I said my life ain’t no crystal stair.

Well, well, well what have we
here? In the 1930 census in Red River, Texas is Napoleon and Maggie VINEY and
two of her sons; Odis/Otis and Ernest WRIGHT. Also in the household are two of
her grandsons; J.B. VOID/BOYD and James F. FREEMAN!!! I think I knocked down at
least three walls and I’m selling bricks now; CHEAP!

There are a few things that I
must point out in the 1930 and 1940 census records that could explain why
Maggie at least is moving from state to state and it may have a lot to do with
work for herself and her husband. In the 1940 the family was in an area that
appeared to be related to the lumber industry. Prior to that in 1930 you see
Napoleon’s occupation listed as a barber.

In the 1940 census it indicated
Napoleon and Maggie were living in the Alden Bridge area in 1935 so it had to
be sometime between 1930 and 1935 they migrated back to Louisiana from Texas
and as we saw earlier from the school records Maggie VINEY spent time in Hugo,
Oklahoma. The fact she has her son’s which are identified as Napoleon’s
stepsons clearly shows she was involved in a relationship with someone named
WRIGHT and that occurred in the state of Arkansas based on the ages and place
of birth for Otis and Ernest.

I know Seebell was born around
1904 so she won’t show up in a census record prior to 1910. Otis and Ernest
appear to have been born in Arkansas so
they could show up in the Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas or Louisiana 1920 based on
the how Maggie moves around from state to state.

No, I haven’t forgotten about
Seebell and I knew she appears in the 1930 census in Hugo, Oklahoma married to
my grandfather Joe as we saw with their marriage license in 1926 but while I
was fooling around looking for Maggie in 1920, I came across another wall that
needed some demolition work and this was just too good.

Heck I’m knocking down the walls
of Jericho now! The EVANS mystery has been solved. If you think back when
Seebell married Joe FREEMAN her surname on the license was say it with me class
EVANS!

In Bradley, Lafayette County in
the great state of Arkansas on the 19th day of June in 1920 Seebell
TILMON/TILMAN age 18 (seems this means she was born in 1901/02 and not 1904 but
I’m not bothered by that one little bit) married Henry EVANS age 22.

If you look at the bottom of the
marriage license you will see what looks like the name R.W. RILEY along with
two other names. I don’t know if this is someone related to Maggie RILEY but
what are the odds? Clearly to me, there is a connection to this part of
Arkansas and why Maggie seems trapped in the constant moving back and forth
between Bossier, Louisiana and Lafayette, Arkansas. BUT THERE’S MORE!

·Just a little recap I know that Maggie TILMON
was more than likely Maggie RILEY.

·Seebell TILMON was married before marrying Joe
FREEMAN but I still don’t know who the father of J.B. BOYD/VOID.

·Maggie married Napoleon VINEY in 1925 and
carried that name evidently into the 1940’s

·I began with Maggie as the wife of Anthony
WRIGHT who more than likely was the father of Otis and Ernest WRIGHT. At some
point after they were born she was no longer living with Anthony in Arkansas.

I’m not certain but in the 1910
census I believe with a great deal of confidence that this is the first husband
of Seebell TILMON; Henry EVANS living in Mars Hill Township, Lafayette County,
Arkansas as a twelve year old; estimating his year of birth circa 1898. With
further research I may be able to make the connection and begin including as
many EVANS ancestors as I can locate who remained in generally the same area.

As I turn back to Seebell’s
mother Maggie I was fortunate to locate documents that appear to tie the
various surnames attributed to her and provide substantial evidence to
corroborate the information on the obituary from her funeral. I admit at first
I was very skeptical of the information in the obituary but the wall that
prevented me from accepting that information is revealed in documents that span
the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

On December 29, 1925 Napoleon
VINEY married Maggie RILEY in Bradley, Lafayette County, Arkansas. This document ostensibly provides the maiden
name of Seebell’s mother and we see Maggie at the age of thirty-eight with
several children in an area that the family was very familiar with and I hope
to locate other ancestors there as I go forward with my research.

Maggie was documented on Uncle
J.B.’s draft registration card as Maggie VINEY in 1941, indicating she
maintained the VINEY identity at least sixteen years following their marriage.

This marriage document also
corroborates the Hugo, Oklahoma School records that have “Mattie” RILEY as the
parent of Otis and Earnest WRIGHT and curiously her daughter Seebell EVANS. I
say curiously because the school record indicates Seebell is fifteen years of
age and her marriage to Henry EVANS is recorded on June 19, 1920. This record
was generated approximately six months after her fifteenth birthday in January,
curious?

The school record begs the
question about the father of Otis and Earnest WRIGHT and after some “exhaustive
research” I was able to come up with another document that provides some
clarity on that subject and in the process knocks down another wall that had me
scratching my head for years.

I can’t tell you how much I was
elated to discover this document because I was always perplexed with the obit
indicating the parents of Seebell were Willie and Maggie TILLMAN. This Marriage
License issued in the township of Bradley, Lafayette County, Arkansas in 1908
substantiates the fact that Maggie RILEY had a relationship that resulted in
the birth of Seebell between 1904 and 1908 with the real possibility there was
a Willie TILLMAN/TILMON!

This document also confirms the
actions I took several years ago when I discovered Maggie and her children
living with Anthony WRIGHT in the 1910 census. Let me remind you that this was
in the same county and township where she married Napoleon VINEY in 1925.

The last wall that needs a little
demolition is the document(s) that provide an answer on the identity of
Seebell’s father, Willie TILMON. I have not been able to locate a marriage
license for Maggie and Willie and I have not been able to locate a birth
certificate for Seebell in Plain Dealing, Bossier, Louisiana but I do have a
person of interest that kinda sorta fits the profile for Willie TILMON:

From the little geographic work I
did to identify the various Parishes in Louisiana and their proximity to where
Maggie RILEY was living in between 1900 and 1910 this is the only Willie
TILMON/TILLMAN I found that fits the age, name with the possibility of being
the father of Seebell TILMON/TILLMAN. I submit the next census page to be
considered strong evidence Maggie RILEY and Willie TILMON had an opportunity to
be familiar with one another based on their being in the same Parish and Ward
but different enumeration districts.

This will require additional
research to confirm these connections but I am feeling 100% more confident I
have knocked down some serious walls and allowed many ancestors to come out of
hiding. In the process there have been additional people discovered with
interesting stories. If they connect to me that will also require some
additional research; let me conclude with the caution for family researchers who may have a connection to these folks; don't accept that I have correctly identified the parents and ancestors of Seebell TILMON/TILLMAN. Conduct your own rigorous research and if you come to the same conclusions then I have served my purpose.